Filed Under:Destroyer

Destroyer records warrant rituals. Be it pouring yourself a glass of wine, cracking open a nearby window to let the last of the day’s light in, moving furniture around so you can dance in the living room, lighting candles. Drop the needle once the mood’s right and you’ll unlock a world built by Dan Bejar himself.

Today we’re given another realm to explore. ken, the twelfth album by Destroyer, is out now. Bejar broke down the new record track by track with Pitchfork – we recommend following along with the piece as you listen.

Just a reminder that ken is available on CD, LP, and via digital outlets. A limited deluxe edition of the LP pressed on opaque yellow vinyl includes a bonus 7-inch containing solo acoustic versions of the album tracks “A Light Travels Down the Catwalk” and “Stay Lost.” Both the standard and deluxe versions of the LP include a lyric insert and download card.

A full band incarnation of Destroyer will begin their European tour in mid-November, with their London date on December 7th. Full dates below.

Ahead of this Friday’s release of Destroyer’s twelfth album ken, Dan Bejar is sharing one final preview from the release that Record Collector has already called “a luxury item, one of the most vital pieces of hand luggage on our hero’s journey.”

Listen to Destroyer’s “Cover From the Sun” now –

“Cover From the Sun” is replete with a lead guitar, tambourine, and live drums, while a sprightly Bejar delivers lines of a blonde Che Guevara and Shakespeare in the park. Needless to say, the song should twist all presupposed theories you may have had about ken after listening to the previously released “Tinseltown Swimming in Blood” and “Sky’s Grey.”

ken is available on CD, LP, and via digital outlets. A limited deluxe edition of the LP pressed on opaque yellow vinyl includes a bonus 7-inch containing solo acoustic versions of the album tracks “A Light Travels Down the Catwalk” and “Stay Lost.” Both the standard and deluxe versions of the LP include a lyric insert and download card.

On this very day, we are pleased to share the video for Destroyer’s new single “Tinseltown Swimming In Blood.” The video was directed by KC (aka Karen Zolo) as an adaptation of the much-revered classic film La Jetée, which addresses contemporary issues of identity, borders, and race.

“I’d just had a conversation about artist Chris Marker with a friend when I was approached to make a music video for the upcoming Destroyer album,” said Zolo. “‘You have a month.’ Okay… I had no idea what the song even sounded like, but the only idea I had was to remake Chris Marker’s La Jetée as faithfully as possible. It’s not just an homage to the great cine-poet; it’s also about the medium of film, about still photography. It would have been a billion times easier and less stressful to shoot it digitally, but it was worth it.”

Of his 12th studio album and its enigmatic title, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar offers the following:

Sometime last year, I discovered that the original name for “The Wild Ones” (one of the great English-language ballads of the last 100 years or so) was “Ken.” I had an epiphany, I was physically struck by this information. In an attempt to hold on to this feeling, I decided to lift the original title of that song and use it for my own purposes. It’s unclear to me what that purpose is, or what the connection is. I was not thinking about Suede when making this record. I was thinking about the last few years of the Thatcher era. Those were the years when music first really came at me like a sickness, I had it bad. Maybe “The Wild Ones” speaks to that feeling, probably why Suede made no sense in America. I think “ken” also means “to know.”

ken was produced by Josh Wells of Black Mountain, who has been the drummer in Destroyer since 2012. The album was recorded in its entirety in the jam space/studio space that the group calls The Balloon Factory. However, unlike Poison Season, ken was not recorded as a “band” record, though everyone in the band does make an appearance.

ken will also be available as a Deluxe LP: Pressed on opaque yellow vinyl and includes a bonus 7-inch single on black vinyl that contains solo acoustic versions of the album tracks “A Light Travels Down the Catwalk” and “Stay Lost.” Includes lyric insert.

Destroyer is also happy to share a run of European tour dates this winter. See full run of dates below.

In autumn 2015, Destroyer released Poison Season — a treasure trove of mid-’70s Bowie-esque thumpers, string-laden laments and E Street horns—to universal acclaim, following it up with a mammoth 8-piece band tour around North America and Europe. Recorded in the same sessions as Poison Season, the song “My Mystery” was a huge favorite yet somehow felt like it didn’t quite fit on the album. So we are pleased to be able to share it now in advance of Destroyer’s forthcoming tours of Europe and Southeast Asia. A limited 12-inch will be released on 6 May.

Says Bejar: “We recorded a song called “My Mystery” a year and a half ago. Kind of a light number, vaguely danceable. Wistful, looking back not unfondly on time spent and dull misadventures had within the dead-as-a-doornail music industry. And the feeling of where it leaves you, like a rat in the middle of the ocean, though not as harsh as that; as if rats could swim an ocean’s length.

Then one day DJ johnedwardcollins@gmail.com called me up and said, “You got any shit for me?”…

So here it is, the video that features the remix by DJ johnedwardcollins@gmail.com (who also plays in the live band and has remixed Destroyer on prior singles). Shot in Mexico City, by Nicloas Bragg, the director says, “‘An ideal city must contain elements of magic, serenity, sorcery and mystery…’ -Luis Barragan. Night falls on CDMX and Destroyer dreams of chasing architects along the oval horse track surrounding Parque Mexico. Old dogs, old men and old Bejar stray into the mesh of fountains, facades and blood orange flumes. “My Mystery” captures our last hours in Mexico City. Taco stands and mezcal bars point the way — all while people keep death in their wine-sloshed eyes. “

Destroyer will be playing their debut shows in Asia this April in China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand and will be back in Europe for more dates this coming June. All dates are listed below!Read the rest of this entry »